Cracking Night at The Cock

A small group of us went over to The Cock Tavern in Kilburn last night to see recent graduate Rachel Barrett's debut as a stand up comedian.

Rachel delivered some crackingly funny work on her Storytelling module last year as a result we put her in touch with Keith Palmer at The Comedy School up in Camden. He's been working with her over the last six weeks to develop a five minute set.

It's a ballsy thing to do to stand up in front of a hundred strong crowd and deliver your material, but Rachel was magnificent, even recovering with calmness and finesse when she momentarily lost her way. I spoke to Keith afterwards and he told me what a fantastic journey he thought Rach had gone on, overcoming all her nerves and doubts to really command the stage. Next step for her is to build up some gigs and develop some material with a look towards going to Edinburgh in 2009. Meanwhile I'm going to try and bring The Comedy School into SMUC to deliver some workshops.

It was a great vibe in the pub all evening and after the comics had worked their magic a jazz funk band played us into the early hours. Didn't get home til ... well just didn't!